SINGLES GOING STEADY : The Head Hunters - "Hour x Hour" (Head Hunters Records, 2024)

Once upon a time, there was the "single" : tiny 7" vinyl discs with a song on each side (more, even 3 or 4 in total in some cases, depending on run time, yet those were "Extended Plays").

Side A was typically a song chosen by the record label to promote and represent an album on AM rotations, so this generally was a pretty darn strong tune, catchy enough to push the entire LP, whole the B side was often an unreleased composition which would later not be found on the long player, perhaps even a "live", instrumental version or alternate take, a little bonus for the fans .
A promotional vehicle if there ever was one, then, but also a nice bait for collectors as well as a chance for younger and/or less flush listeners to take home a piece of music by their favourite pop stars for chump change.
Singles was remarkable as calling cards to introduce new stars, provided placement for music which wouldn't have quite fit within a certain LP and, even more so, due to their relatively cheap manufacturing cost, quickly became the very bread-and-butter of any and all underground movements (it's hard, in retrospect, to envision important musical trends such as the British Invasion, mid-60s Garage-Psych, let alone Punk Rock, without the decisive role played by those cute, little 7-inchers).
Nowadays there is barely a Music Industry to even speak of, the mere remains of which in the hands of a couple of giant media conglomerates; Even the influence and scope of radio has greatly diminished and the very fruition of music itself been altered in dramatic, unforeseen manners by the advent of the internet, streaming not to mention the vast changes society as a whole has undergone.
Singles have therefore become cult novelty items, very often a bonafide collectors fetish which regularly sees the rarest and most sought-after specimens exchange hands for crazy sums of money.
Luckily, the Underground appears to be relatively impervious to the passing of time (if anything, it exists in a time capsule all of its own) and, especially when it comes to genres such as RnR, Punk, Garage or Indie, singles are still very much "Going Steady" as the Buzzcocks woulda had it.
So let's pretend for a minute that I'm writing a "Single Of The Month" column, though this is but the humble Polka-Dot Bar and has no pretense to even remotely match the influence and reach of, say, your "Sounds", "Record Mirror" or NME of old : "Hour x Hour", the official vinyl debut of Birmingham's own The Head Hunters, freshly and independently released ontheir own Head Hunters Records label.
Though the band only formed very recently, these dudes are by no means first-timers : Darren "Rockin Ray" Birch and Ozzie, bass and drums respectively, used to be the rock-solid rythm section in the legendary Gunfire Dance (arguably the GREATEST Sleaze RnR band in the history of the world) guitarist Martyn "Nelsta" Nelson comes from King Adora, also outta Brum (Glam/Punk Indie rockers just in between early Manic Street Preachers and D Generation) and also singer/frontman/guitarist Jez Miller carries a storied pedigree under his belt (you will recall him from leading The Men That Will Not Be Blamed and Flesh Tetris, not to mention his brief role in an ill-fated, reformed version of the Lords Of The New Church back in the early 2000s alongside Ozzie himself, as well as Walter Lure's UK touring band in which Birchy played as well.
From the get-go, it's very apparent how the Head Hunters are heirs to the aforementioned Gunfire Dance's sonic and spiritual testament.
Beginning with Dave Twist's front cover artwork, a close-up of the eye of charismatic frontman Anthony "Ant" Bullock, who sadly departed from this mortal coil in 2006 and to whom, along with Walter Lure, the record is dedicated.
Exactly as in that illustrious band's case, lumping the Head Hunters in with your everyday Sleaze, Hard or Glam/Punk lot, however one wants to call it, would be a gross oversight : you will find none of the faux-camp, hair-metally cliches that tipified many of the bands (the American ones, especially) associated to that genre here, this is a genuine RnR force of nature with solid roots firmly planted in late '70s Punk, as well as the American Garage Rock of 10 years prior, not to mention Proto-Punk, Stoogey assault, NY Dolls swagger and that classic Stones/Motts/Faces RnR strut, with a dash of sanguine, white-hot soul just to spice things up that bit further.
Im short, REAL RnR, no arena/stadium filler of any sort.
So many elements in these guy's musical DNA which all brilliantly and efectively cone to light in these two short, sharp shocks of vitriol, both recorded live back in February this year at King's Norton's iconic "Tower Of Song" venue.
A-side "Hour x Hour" is a raging explosion of fuzz coming across as the Stooges jamming along with Thee Hypnotics; The song's killer, anthemic beat sudfenly evokes that noxious "Fun House" sonic magma as Jez's teenage squall tears its way through a telluric wall of guitars, bass and drums.
Heavy stuff indeed and one can only imagine the kind of Raw Power (pun fully intended) the band can be capable of unleashing on stage (criminally, I'm yet to witness them perform in person though this will be fixed asap).
An all-out, triumphant return to the sweatiest, filthiest of street-wise RnR, the kind of stuff that knows no expiry date, let alone labels nor compromise of any sort.
If the Stooges had sounded ANYTHING even ŕemotely close to this back in 2007, when their disastrous studio comeback LP "The Weirdness" got released, we'd have witnessed the mother of all RnR miracles.
Ozzie's precise and unmistakable drumming Gunfires the door wide open soon to be engulfed by an ultra-distorted Wah-Wah which gives way to a break-neck chorus redolent of the very best MC5 : HIGH-ENERGY RNR! POWER, ENERGY AND ACCURACY!!!
While, given the participants involved here, this was perhaps to be at least partially expected, side "B" yields a bonafide surprise as well as providing that extra oomph that only truly exceptional units can bring to tge table.
"You Got Me Humming" is the hyped-up version of a 1966 Sam & Dave classic dragging the original's frantic, toe-tapping soul power down to the most lascivious RnR hell fire, every nerve and muscle tense almost to burst at the crank.
Impossible to stop from shaking your money making when dancing by the Devil's juke-box, you simply want more n more, it's got the smell of sex and the bittersweet taste of sin.
To make a long story short, everything that REAL RnR should always be all about, accept no imitation!
Strong on first-rate musicianship as well as the kind of attitude money can buy nor any school can teach, the Head Hunters fulminating debut immediately poses them as a major force to be reckoned with when, from this way forward, talking REAL, no-bullshit, AUTHENTIC FUCKING ROCK N ROLL, make no mistake.
Do keep an eye on 'em, 'cause I've got a hunch that the best is indeed yet to come when it comes to this lot.
RnR is ALIVE & WELL.
Ramblin Erikk smiles on, as the empty beer cans pile-up higher and the dog-ends over-flow out of the ashtray.
All feels right in this goddamn year of 2024.
I say "Oh my and boo-hoo" and, "You Got Me Hummin" baby.